The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has concluded that last year’s Florida International University (FIU) pedestrian bridge collapse stemmed from a flawed design, inadequate oversight and other “significant errors.”
Several of the parties that were found liable by the NTSB are also defendants in Stuart Grossman’s lawsuit to hold those who oversaw and constructed the bridge responsible for the catastrophic incident.
As recently reported in the Miami Herald, it was determined that the failure to close the busy road beneath the bridge while a crew performed emergency work was inexcusable and represented a total lack of independent judgment by FIU, the Florida Department of Transportation and the project’s design-build team and inspectors.
Furthermore, the National Transportation Safety Board found that errors in the bridge’s design by FIGG Bridge Engineers, Inc., (FIGG), along with a lack of oversight by the engineering firm Louis Berger, also played a major role in the collapse.
In a Univision 23 interview with Maria Alesia Sosa, Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen trial attorney Alex Arteaga-Gomez agrees with the NTSB’s findings, stating that, “if Louis Berger conducts a proper design inspection, this doesn’t happen.”
Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen co-founder and lead attorney on the case, Stuart Grossman, said to Jack Brook of the Miami Herald that “we stand ready, willing and able to assist any agency whatsoever that wants to press charges.”
Grossman and Arteaga-Gomez filed a negligence lawsuit for the FIU bridge collapse on March 30, 2018, on behalf of Richard Humble, who was a passenger in one of the vehicles crushed that day.
The vehicle’s driver and his friend, Alexa Duran, was killed by the impact. GRYC is also representing Kevin Hanson, a construction worker who suffered severe brain damage while working on the bridge when it collapsed.
“There were dead and injured people and lives that are forever changed for simply driving down the road. This isn’t just a tragedy, it’s a scandal. It’s the kind of stuff that horror films are made of,” Grossman added.
Read the articles below for more information on GRYC’s case:
- Univision 23: Víctimas del colapso del puente peatonal de FIU dicen estar satisfechos con los resultados de la investigación
- Miami Herald: ‘Screaming something was wrong’: Feds fault FIU, state and contractors for deadly bridge collapse
- WLRN: ‘Screaming Something Was Wrong’: Feds Fault FIU, State And Contractors For Deadly Bridge Collapse
If you are reading this because you or somebody you love is seeking representation for a similar case, Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen can help.